[Past RP] The Final Gateway (private: Silim and Dai)

It was quite a riddle why he had chosen this city for his plan. Hovering above the center of the city in the air, the man who looked like a christian priest, but with eyes speaking of only evil intent in his eyes. But the actual answer was easy - a hotspot of spiritual energy like Karakura would be noticed too quickly. This place, Hiroshima, saw much death and destruction during the second world war, and till this day, the after-effects were not gone. A perfect place of suffering for the dark ritual that would take place here.
Zefonse and the other renewed Espada had led a small strike-team of expendable Arrancar into Soul Society as a diversion. Of course, sacrificing pawns was normally not a good thing to do, but this one time, the result would even out the price. With the Shinigami out of the picture, the Sugiura Dimension would need to open! The Holy Grail was waiting for him on the other side, he could literally feel it's call.
"Great Grail... soon, I will hold you in my hands." murmuring to himself, the man with the blackened heart floated down to the ground. The humans were unable to even see him, but as he released his hiding on his Reiatsu, and the black and golden aura surrounded him - the ones around him instantly passed out. It wasn't quite enough to squeeze their souls to shambles, but the ones closest stopped breathing. Slowly, they would die from his dark Reiatsu seething into them.
Standing on the ground now, the tall man reached inside of his mantle, not caring for those around him. In his hand, he held a black, twisted key. A 'wrong' version of the Kings Key, made out of Hollows instead of humans - the tool to seal off the human world from Soul Society. Leaning down towards the ground, Heroism slid the key into the ground, as if there was actually a keyhole.
And in that moment, all dimensions screamed out in 'pain'. The process had started, and the only way to stop it was to destroy the one providing the key with energy - Heroism, the new Hollow King standing above it.

Opening up before the Arrancar... was a doorway. A senkaimon, a doorway to Soul Society. Through the doorway, a Shinigami calmly walked, the lotus armband on his right arm, showing that he was an adjutant of the Second Division, their Vice Captain. He closed his eyes and stepped out before the Hollow King, the red haired Shinigami then opening and watching him through equally red eyes, eyes with a deeper tinge to them than the hair that graced his head. He narrowed his eyes, and placed his hand on the zanpakuto on his hip. This man... he'd tried to distract them earlier, using Arrancar from the Espada as a distraction. He sighed softly, and spoke out to the man causing the pain to the rest of the dimensions.

"Oi. That's not a smart thing to do, Hollow." He wouldn't attack yet... maybe he could get through to him with words? Yeah, right. Like that would happen. He just calmly stood there, and watched. Among all of this carnage, one thing was made apparent to this man. This Arrancar in front of him... he was the target. Through all of this, he knew who exactly who his target was, and he knew who he would kill.

I came to the Gotei 13 to make a change. To stop the deaths. If this man must die for that dream to be realized... SO BE IT. He smiled softly, and spoke again.

"Maybe I should introduce myself. Your... distraction force... wasn't very useful, in my opinion. Especially when I traced their Reiatsu back here... As for my name, I'm Daigoro. Daigoro Ito. Vice Captain of the Second Division." His eyes narrowed - and tried to hold in his Reiatsu. He may have been only a Vice Captain, but his abilities far surpassed one or two of the Captains. He stood there, among the beginning chaos, ready to do whatever he had to do. He was going to defend Earth. He was going to defend Soul Society. This would be his stand to the end...

The tall man chuckled a bit with his deep, full voice. Unbeknownst to him, he already knew that someone would appear before him moments before it actually happened - his Mystic Eyes pierced the time infront of him as good as they could. He saw the possiblity of getting attacked right away fade, but also futures of him instantly fighting after the formal introduction was over, as it was the standard under warriors. He played with the thoughts of the futures where he started the attack himself, but he had to save more time. The more time passed, the further the key would turn...
"So they've already been found out. Not bad, Shinigami. I might as well introduce myself, as I will be the one to kill you. Sadly, I can't comply to your request to stop my doing." Speaking with a calm, almost friendly voice, Kirei had his right hand raised slightly, like a priest talking to a believer, which only made this scene even more unreal. But at the moment, the Hollow still held all of the cards in his hands.
"My name is Kotomine Kirei, King of the Hollow. I'd be pleased if you could scream that name while you perish, if it is no trouble for you. After all, a fight is always a good way to derive pleasure, no?" The deep voice of the fake priest - it had a nearly hypnotizing tone to it. Flicking his deep blue mantle back a bit, the smile on the Arrancars face - it was a true, sincere smile. A happy one. As if... he was a saint.
"Now come, Daigoro Ito. May you embrace eternity." Without even changing his stance, only the eyes of the priest narrowed. He was now completely focused on seeing the multiple futures - he never dealt the first blow if he could help it. No wonder with an ability like his. And the more Dai would consider different approaches - the more he would learn about the mans power, which seemed to be quite considerable, although the futures were not clear yet to him.

"My name is Kotomine Kirei, King of the Hollow. I'd be pleased if you could scream that name while you perish, if it is no trouble for you. After all, a fight is always a good way to derive pleasure, no?" Such a hypnotizing monotone. Dai's eyes narrowed slightly, as the man spoke. The redheaded Shinigami smiled softly, and raised his arms into the air with a light shrug.

"I think you'll find, Kotomine Kirei, King of the Hollow, that I don't die so easily. Actually, I've proven rather difficult to kill... once or twice before." He smiled brightly and innocently, before slowly drawing his zanpakuto from the sheath on his right hip, flicking it around in an inverted grip, the one-foot blade shining in the dull sunlight. He would not fall.

"Now come, Daigoro Ito. May you embrace eternity." He grinned, and lowered his head slightly.

"There is something you don't understand... eternity... is not something that you can embrace!" He suddenly disappeared in a flash-step. A red wave flowed behind him as he moved around behind Kotomine, bringing his zanpakuto down in a direct attack to the man's back. He grinned ferally, and ducked down after his first attack, trying to grab the man's foot and pull him off his pedestal.

Attacking from behind at first. Typical, to check the speed of the opponent - Kirei could've guessed this tactic even without his eyes. The tall man jumped sideways to evade the blade while turning around - the cold steel cutting through the air and even a bit of the mantle flowing behind the Hollow King. Before it even happened, he knew Daigoros next move, at least for the time being - and as his hand was reaching out for his leg, said leg snapped forward to kick directly against his enemies arm. Should he hit with that, it could surely numb his hand at least, seeing as the Arrancar had augmented bodily strength surpassing human levels by far.
With his body still turning, Heroism also aimed his right elbow downwards to make a quick jab with it towards the still lowered head of his enemy. The possible effect of such an attack was head trauma, if he was lucky enough to hit, that is. This fight wasn't going to be easy... but as long as the Hollow King survived long enough to let the Twisted Key turn completely, he would win no matter what. For now, he would hold his true strength back, and lead his enemy into revealing more of his power.
"I'll make you understand what it means... true eternity." His voice still held that calm, monotone sound, even though both of his moves were clearly aimed to cripple his enemy, violent, with pure destructive intention and will. He wanted to crush this Shinigami into the ground... his intent to kill was seething out of his body like a sickening air, eating away at the unconcious humans around them.

Each... of his attacks... The redhead felt every one of them miss. He felt his arm get hit by a powerful kick, and then when the elbow hit his head, he dropped like a stone, and hit the ground, hard. With a groan, he clambered back to his feet, and looked up at Heroism with his eyes narrowed. A quick look at Dai would show something... amazing...

The redhead was hardly injured. The attacks, which would've incapacitated a normal Shinigami, were just scratches on his body. He smiled softly, and flash-stepped up to face him once more.

"I'll make you understand what it means... true eternity." Daigoro roared at him in rage.

"I told you! I have no notion of eternity. I have no notion of despair! I am who I am, and no amount of destructive force will change that!" It was time, at least, to use Shikai. He could waste that, right? I mean, he still had bankai in reserve... and then there was...

The Triad.

The redheaded Shinigami held the zanpakuto up, and flicked it out by his side with a snarl.

"Hitokuchi, Kiba Ookami!" The blade doubled in length suddenly, reaching a total of two feet. He snarled lightly at the Arrancar, before holding his zanpakuto out to face heroism, allowing it to levitate in mid-air before him. With a light tap, he sent the zanpakuto spinning in a frenzy. After about a second of spinning, he caught it suddenly, and grinned.

"Hadou no Gojuuhachi. Tenran!" Suddenly, a whirlwind went heading straight for the Arrancar. Dai knew it wouldn't work... but he needed to see this man's limits!

[Heroism]

"A release, this early in a fight? You don't waste time. I like that." Normally, no strange sentence. But the terrifying thing was that the Hollow King said that before Daigoro spoke even two words of his incarnation of the Zanpakuto completely, with his smile now not being quite as kind as before - it had a more sinister, foreboding nature to it. He wasn't going to hold back anymore, either... Then, a spinning motion of the sword, as the fake priest truely turned around to his enemy again, in his usual pose, one hand behind his back, the other raised like during speaking the blessings upon believers.
Heroism saw what would head his way amongst other possible futures, but as the wind broke loose, all centered down to a few. He could dodge, but take partial damage. Or... he could obliterate the attack.
Raising his right hand even further, a golden circle appeared in his palm of concentrated energy. Narrowing down the futures and amounts of energy he could muster in time, he chose the perfect middle - absolute cancellation, no flowback to either of them.
"Cero." The energy blast was released with the typical, slightly scorching sound, as if the air itself was burning for a short time. Surrounded by the golden Reiatsu, the inner of the beam actually looked like black, slightly red, sickening and formless mud. It still had the exact same properties as a normal-looking Cero, though - this was simply his personality seething into the looks of what he did.
As the two attacks colided, a bit off from the middle between them and more towards the Hollow King, he decided to play a bit with his enemy for now, keep him moving, and make him reveal more techniques, either in thoughts of possibilites or as actual attacks.
"Bala." Out of the same hand, a swarm of at least 30 small, golden bullets was fired towards the Vice-Captain at a rapid rate. The fake priest was not moving at all, but his deep blue, slightly purple mantle was flowing backwards as he fired the cero first and how the Bala, the recoil blowing away some of the air, but leaving the tall and wide man unaffected. Even some rubble off of the street was getting loose from him using these attacks.
"Let's see for how long your will can last against the everlasting taint of my soul..."

"A release, this early in a fight? You don't waste time. I like that." Strange. That was an unusual thing for him to say, especially when Dai hadn't even properly released the blade. His eyes narrowed at that, just as the wind began to fly towards the Arrancar. Again, he wasn't sure it would work, and his suspicions were confirmed, when the man spoke a single word.

"Cero." The Reiatsu beam flew towards the wind, and hit it, dissipating it with a single collision. The redheaded Shinigami sneered at this, and then once the man flung several Bala at him, he knew that dodging would be an impossibility. He'd have to cut his way through. He took a standing position, and grinned, allowing white-and-red energy to flow down the blade of his zanpakuto, glowing in the light. He stepped forwards, and held the sword up to the incoming balls of energy. They collided, and Dai shouted out in a show of pure willpower.

"Seishou-Hakaisha!" He grinned, and the energies collided, the balas being sliced through by the red-and-white as if it was a hot knife through butter... but the one more came, and Dai didn't see it... until it was too late. He blinked, and the Bala hit him directly in the face, sending him flying backwards, sliding across the hard ground. He groaned, and stood up again, a red mark on his cheek, but not much else to show for Heroism's attacks.

"Let's see for how long your will can last against the everlasting taint of my soul..."

"Let's see how long that taint lasts... against my purity!" The redhead suddenly ran forwards, in a direct run towards Heroism. So, he could see the future, it seemed. That one stunt with his zanpakuto, the fact that he seemed to be able to dodge every one of his attacks... Dai grinned. He knew it. But how could he stop it?

As soon as he came close, he suddenly disappeared, re-appearing behind the Arrancar. Before he attacked, he disappeared again, and re-appeared once more, at a different angle. He did this five times, before actually attacking the man. Flash step... had it's uses.

So the Shinigami did not have the absolutely best reflexes, but he surely had durability in him. This was going to be a fun little brawl, at least until the key turned completely... Once that happened, even if Heroism died, the worlds would be closed off. However, the smiling Arrancar now had another slight problem - his enemy figured out that he saw the future, although Heroism himself was still unaware of that fact. At least for now. However, the fake priest got a slight impression his enemy at least thought that he was quite fast, or had extremely good reflexes...
Because the next attack made by Dai actually managed to screw with the powers of the Hollow for a bit. Suddenly, five futures appeared before his special inner eye, making a discernsion so slow that it was almost too late. One second later to discern the real future, and Heroism would need to pull a blade out of his shoulder. Or he would've had to pick up his own arm, depending on how much pressure was actually inside of that sword. Both possibilities existed in the futures. However, it was avoided by him acting really in the last possible second - and for the first time, his enemy was able to draw blood from the Arrancar.
"Tch." A grinding sound, a screach, as the cold steel of the Zanpakuto was scratching and burying itself into the Hierro of the tall man, who had raised his left arm and sideway-deflected the sword. Resulting from it, the blade buried itself into his arm, almost deep enough to hit the bone, before he was able to redirect it - blood streaming down the weapon, and his own arm. Any individual without steel-like skin would've lost an arm now, but ignoring his own pain to the best of his ability, Kotomine pulled his right leg back for a split second - before making an upwards kick up to the same levels of his own head, aiming at his enemies chin to lift him off of the ground and throw him back should it actually hit and succeed in doing that.
Following up to his kick as he crashed his foot back to the ground - creating a very small crater from the pressure directly under it - Kirei literally pushed forward, in an attempt to grab onto Daigoro with his right hand.
Only if that would succeed, he would try to smash the Shinigami into the ground, literally speaking. If his enemy was to evade this grab and kick, then there was nothing to throw to the ground after all, right...?

And so, as the key was turning, the battle was only starting...

He'd cut. He'd cut him, and beaten the man's foreseeing of the future. That was an achievement, on it's own. Suddenly, a foot. Came at him like a shot. The redheaded man tried to dodge it, but found his chin being in the path, and he'd done too little, too late. He was hit, and flew into the air, looking down at Heroism as he went.

Damnitall... He tried to maneuver his body through the air, hoping that he could somehow get out of the way of any of the man's attacks. But it was too late. He felt the hand grab his face, and the force of the ground coming up below him. He shouted out in pain, and laid at the bottom of the crater made by the push with a groan. With a sigh, he picked himself up off the ground, staring at the Hollow.

A small trail of blood dripped down his forehead, having finally broken Dai's skin, and caused him to bleed.

I need to use my bankai... But I don't know if he's expecting that or not. His eyes narrowed, and he jumped out of the crater, before shouting out and going onto one knee. He was more in pain that he'd originally realized. With a soft sigh, he got back up to his standing position, and stared down the Arrancar.

"Looks like we're both bleeding now. Isn't that something?" He could all but laugh.

[Heroism, Hollow King]

The Hollow allowed his eyes to scrape above the wound that had been inflicted onto him, and a slight smile creeped across his face once more. He was clearly enjoying this fight more than it was healthy, for both sides. His enemy was truely hard to break - the last one to give him so much trouble was Zefonse. Any normal Shinigami would've been broken in half by his last attacks, or would be missing their head now. But even against his accurate and devastating blows, Dai was still alive and fighting. A delighting experience.
"Indeed, Dai. It seems like we're both enjoying the sight of blood." Narrowing his eyes a bit, he continued to watch the possible futures... could that be...? No, there was no way to discern it just yet. It was just one of many ideas. For as long as Dai didn't fix himself into a strategy and got to carrying it out, the eyesight of Kirei was seeing too many futures at once to clearly determine the true one.
Blood was flowing from the wound on his left arm, down his wrist, dripping from his fingertips... but suddenly, golden and black energy sparked around his left hand. A buildup of energy could be felt out of nowhere, as the Arrancar raised his left palm to face directly at his enemy - even his palm was soaked with blood. The catalyst for his next attack, one of the more devastating moves of the Espada.
"However... My blood is nothing I'm afraid to see. Gran Rey Cero."
With those words, his mantle was flowing back wildly again, as if a giant storm was ripping onto him, but the Hollow King himself did not waver one bit. From the blood on his left hand, a storm of golden and black energy was released, in a form not unlike arcs of lighting striking forward. Now it was to see... would Dai find a way to counter this large-scale energy attack?
"Now show me... your true powers."

"Indeed, Dai. It seems like we're both enjoying the sight of blood." Enjoying? Dai was doing what was necessary. He was never one to "enjoy" fighting. All he wanted to do was keep humanity safe from people like Heroism. Was that too much to ask? He sneered lightly at the Arrancar, and suddenly watched him raise his left arm, the palm aimed at Dai.

"However... My blood is nothing I'm afraid to see. Gran Rey Cero." The sudden gold-and-black glow alerted him to the oncoming Cero, and the redhead just laughed. Just stood there, and laughed.

"When will you people learn..." He stepped forwards, and raised his blade up into a defensive position, causing the metal to glow white-and-red. "...energy means nothing to me!" The glow of his zanpakuto collided with it's equal opposite, and the two forces suddenly began to duel. Dai's eyes narrowed, and he slowly but surely cut through the Cero.

The two abilities clashed, but Dai's wedge seemed to be working. Burning energy lashed at his face, and his red eyes glowed with the glow of the Cero. He shouted out, and pushed harder, trying to get as far through as he could before giving out. Almost there.... He broke through! The two sides of the Cero hit the ground behind him, and two large cleaves were cut out of the earth. He stared at Heroism.

"Now show me... your true powers."

"Heh... you mean Bankai?" Dai shook his head and laughed again.

"That's not my true power." That sentence, those words, were lined with venom, and could chill anything within a five meter radius, if it was physical. No more was to be said, the redhead just flash-stepped at the Arrancar again, moving both hands in separate arcs, only planning on hitting with one.

Heroism calmly watched as his enemy cut apart the energy blast. It was not like he could set after it to attack directly - if he did that, then his own Gran Rey Cero would be blasted at HIM through this cutting-ability, the Hollow King saw that through his future-seeing eyes. Instead, he focused his inner spiritual pressure on the cut on his left arm, sealing it in a way not unlike hardening ones blood - any spiritual fighter could use that method to stop excessive bleeding, it was one of the reasons why Shinigami and Hollow did not simply bleed to death in their sword- and blade-heavy fights.
The next words, though... well, the words themselves couldn't surprise him since he knew them beforehand. But their meaning was important. A state above Bankai... this was interesting and dangerous. He had to take Daigoro out before the key turned completely, in order to assure that the Shinigami in Soul Society would never fully recover. Losing someone like this man would surely hamper their process of regaining strength. Not like they should be able to break the seal in the next century anyways, but it was always good to take precautions.
"So? What is it, then?" As the fake priest still seemed to smile and said this calmy, steel met steel, as the unconcious humans around them got blown into all directions. Now, Heroism only had to deal with three futures instead of five - so while he was now holding a strangely shaped straight sword in each hand, only one arm was raised to block the sword of the Shinigami without even looking at it. The strong grip around the hilt of the sword was incredible, as the Arrancar didn't flinch for one bit, burrying his feet into the ground with intense pressure for a bit.
The swords themselves, he had pulled them out of his coat the moment Dai had used his flash-steps, and now, with the sword that was still free, he aimed a stab at Daigoros chest for now. Not the most original move, easy to dodge, but the Hollow King was known to take slow approaches unless he had a high amount of possible futures in which he inflicted greater damage onto his target.
"Let me introduce... these swords are the Black Keys."
Saying so with his hypnotizing monotone voice, the name sounded almost holy. And his enemy would most likely not expect Kirei to have four more of them hidden in his cloak...
"If you wish to know what these keys unlock, then give me your all, Daigoro... or else, the key will turn, and nothing will ever rescue your world."

Each attack was blocked - that seemed to affirm Dai's understanding of his abilities. It seemed that this man, this Hollow King, could discern the near future. And that would work to his advantage - and slowly bring Dai to his knees. Each hit that the Shinigami tried to place upon him, it was blocked. Then he brought out some more swords, and tried to hit him with an obvious shot to the chest. His eyes narrowed, and he moved out of the way, placing his feet on the man's chest and using him to push himself away, landing on the ground at a distance.

"So, what is it then?" Dai would answer that question first.

"All in due time, Arrancar. It seems that I will have to use it, eventually." He tilted his head to the side, and smiled brightly and innocently at the Arrancar.

"Let me introduce... these swords are the Black Keys."

"Those 'keys' of yours... they unlock something... Pity, then, that you won't get to use them for long..." He held his zanpakuto up, in front of his face.

"If you wish to know what these keys unlock, then give me your all, Daigoro... or else, the key will turn, and nothing will ever rescue your world."

"Fine. You will see it... the all-encompassing defense. The reason that I am able to stand up for anything that I choose - the causes of my heart!" He flicked the blade down by his side, a large cone of Reiatsu suddenly spouting from it as it doubled in length. As the Reiatsu cone faded, Dai's uniform became white, and a large red-and-white wolf stepped out from the shadows behind Dai, growling at the Hollow King.

"Bankai. Runa Ookami." He stood there, watching Heroism, a small smile on his face. Time to show the truth to the Arrancar - he was not one to be discounted, even those who could see the future could be wrong.

[Heroism, Hollow King]



Heroisms smile widened only as he knew when the Bankai was going to happen. As Dai called out his final releases name, the fake priests hands vanished into his robes again. One moment later, the robe glittered to the ground. Underneath, the fine, black shirt he was wearing was still a layer ontop of the fighting shirt he was wearing underneath, and his Hollow Hole was also still hidden from sight. However, now a chain was dangling around his neck - his mask fragment as a pendant on it, radiating evil Reiatsu just as the holder of it.
But Kirei did not simply remove his robe to be able to move easier. Now, he was holding... more weapons. Three swords in each hand, pressed in-between his fingers like claws growing out of the back of his hand in a way. No normal human could fight like this, they would lack the ability to have enough pressure on them and enough strength in the fingers to withstand blows. But he was an Arrancar, and those were his swords - for him, they were lighter than a feather, and his bones and skin were as hard as steel. And his physical strength... well, he had managed to get Daigoro, one of the most defensive beings in existance, bleed with his bare hands.
"Bankai. Runa Ookami."
"Beautiful display, Daigoro. A 'compact' type Bankai? Hm, no, not quite. A formidable technique, for sure." Was Heroism crazy? He was fighting this kind of opponent, but yet he had no worry in the world on his face. Nor did he release his Zanpakuto. But of course, he knew that fighting like this against a Bankai was dangerous, nearly suicidal, even for him. But he was playing on time. The more it looked like Dai was winning - the less likely the future of Yamamoto deciding to aid his student and arrive here. Against him, even the self-crowned Hollow King would have the greatest trouble imagineable. The key had to turn.
"Now... Shall we dance?" Making no attempt to attack first, standing there calmly, the stance of the armed fake priest changed, sliding slightly sideways with his leg. His right arm raised infront of the body now, the left arm also slightly raised, all six black keys looked directly at Dai...
At least until Kotomine actually attacked one moment later, and threw all three blades in his left hand at Daigoro in a strange pattern. One directly at him, the other one in a volley upwards to crash down, and the other one to bounce of the ground slightly and pierce from underneath. Now to see the possible uses of the Bankai against such an attack...
But one question was still open. What kind of spiritual being threw a weapon needed for a release away like a projectile?

The robe had disappeared, and the man had drawn four new blades. With a small sigh, Dai watched him carefully... checking for any angsty movements, any sort of idea that he was going to attack the redheaded Shinigami. His eyes narrowed slightly.

"Beautiful display, Daigoro. A 'compact' type Bankai? Hm, no, not quite. A formidable technique, for sure."

"Compact?" Dai laughed again. "Don't get me wrong. This wolf is no 'compact' type zanpakuto. In fact..." He tilted his head to the side and winked at the man, before opening his eyes suddenly.

"Now... Shall we dance?" Yes, let's. The redhead prepared to step back into the wolf's aura when... They suddenly came at him. He reacted instantly, trying to bring the blade out to block the first key. The two blades connected, knocking away the first of the three Keys. A quick look up alerted him to the advent of the next blade. He jumped back slightly, the Key hitting the ground in front of his feet... But then... a glimmer of steel from below! The blade came up at him... he couldn't react in time!

The blade was going for his neck... He moved to the left, and it clipped his collarbone, causing him to shout out in pain and fall back... into the wolf's leg...

And the creature glowed - it's already 10 foot height suddenly growing as the creature took to a bipedal form. The redhead narrowed his eyes from the center of the creature, as a tower shield and halberd appeared in it's now-formed hands, and Roman armour appearing on it's head and body. 25 feet, the wolf was, staring down at Heroism. He suddenly went down onto one knee, holding the tower shield before his face, and pointing the halberd towards the Arrancar's face.

"Second Form: Centurion Wolf. This is the major form that my bankai takes, Hollow King." He smirked from inside the creature.

His three blades scattered over the battlefield after this attack made by him, but the Hollow apparently didn't care. Was he so sure of himself as to not thinking about releasing? Or were these swords not his true Zanpakuto-blades? It was quite the riddle, as Dai evaded being cut to pieces and fused with the wolf created by his Bankai. The smile of the priest was unchanging, but now seemed to grow quite a bit darker, too.
Infront of his future-seeing eyes, it suddenly turned darker. Less paths of time opened up, and far more ended in his own demise than before. Routing energy into his free hand, Kotomine wasn't about to be beaten, though. It was quite time for him to stop playing around. His enemy once said that energy was nothing for him, but the Hollow King knew one technique that couldn't be 'nothing' for anyone. The sudden buildup in the left hand, which was slowly raised, it was strong enough to kill the civillians around them, who were unconcious in the dozens. In this fight, Hiroshima would once more turn into a ghost town of destruction - just that it would never recover from this gruesome battle.
"It truely seems like you don't want to play around anymore, my friend. If you'd like to confess before you die, I can help with that. Luckily, I am a priest." The fake, nice smile and the slightly mocking, monotone deep voice made the picture even more surreal. Black lightning and red arcs of it seemed to run through the left arm of Heroism now, all drawing towards his palm. He was unable to move right now, with this charging. Of course, that was anything but safe considering his enemy was now much taller than him and held a weapon on heads height for the Arrancar - but his future eyes would warn him soon enough to dodge. And since he still held his great physical ability and the swords of his other hand, he was not ready to get into real dodging just yet...
"But now, sleep in the darkness." The eyes of Kotomine - was it like that from the start, or did they suddenly change from a normal brown to this dull, dead brown like a corpse? It did not matter much, as the wide, black beam was released from his hand with the next word.
"Cero Oscuras." The darkness emitted from the beam - it was incredible. The black energy looked like deep mud, without any way of escape - the destructive capability of this move was devastating. Kirei would feel the drain of using this move in the rest of the battle for sure - but right now, it was a wave of destruction headed for Daigoro.
If the Shinigami evaded, this blast would surely annihilate at least half of Hiroshima, and some of the landscape behind - everything would simply be molten and blasted into single atoms and blown away, like the ground infront of the fake priest, who was even pushed backwards a bit by this move. In the form of a cone, the street infront of him was carved out right after his hand, even though the energy blast wasn't scratching over it. It still annihilated the concrete beneath it.
This was the strongest known Cero of the Espada, used by the strongest known Hollow to date. Now it was time... for Daigoro to show if he really had what it took to prove himself to all worlds as a new figure of greatness. He was facing the ultimate enemy.

Daigoro didn't understand. Why wasn't he releasing? The redhead's eyes narrowed slightly, and he seemed to shift into a crouched position, holding the halberd out to his side, and the tower shield before his face.

"It truely seems like you don't want to play around anymore, my friend. If you'd like to confess before you die, I can help with that. Luckily, I am a priest." Dai smiled from behind the white wall of energy.

"I was playing in the first place?" The Shinigami stretched his arm out, and smiled softly, before watching him carefully as he made his motion.

"But now, sleep in the darkness." The energy began to crackle, and Dai's eyes opened wide. What is that... What...? No. His eyes went back to a narrowed form, and he pushed his shield slightly further forwards. He knew what that was, he knew exactly what that was. And Heroism's statement simply affirmed it for him.

"Cero Oscuras." He grinned from behind the shield.

"Sleep? Hah... you have me surely mistaken, Hollow King. I am only going to continue... TO LIVE!" The Cero hit his single shield, crackling black energies spreading out from the collision point, occasionally hitting a human and disintegrating them. Something was going to give... and it was Dai's shield. The solidified Reiatsu shattered, and with it, the Cero, sending the wolf backwards. Dai's eyes narrowed, and the wolf stood up straight, looking directly at Heroism.

"Fine." He held the halberd up, and transfigured it into a shield... but that wasn't all. The shield suddenly disappeared, and the wolf along with it, Dai gliding down out of the air and landing gracefully on the ground with a small smile on his face, holding a new blade in his hand, one that was glowing slightly.


"You forced my hand, Hollow. Pity. Maybe I should explain things, first?" He held the newly-formed zanpakuto out in front of him, and smirked.

"What do you know about zanpakuto? I mean, about their spirits? Usually, single-wield blades have one spirit, and dual wields have two. My zanpakuto is unusual. It's sealed in a single blade, and yet... it has two spirits. I always wondered why that was." He grinned.

"This, this blade here is the second of the pair. Kiba Ookami... is a dual wield zanpakuto, with a single blade, the other only available through bankai. And I'm about to release it." His grin softened, and he held the sword up to his chest.

"Assimilate. Triad of Souls." The blade suddenly glowed brighter, and began to slowly fuse itself into Dai's chest, the blade disappearing in a glow, and the redhead closing his eyes. The glow faded, and he stood there for a few seconds, hair falling to his sides. His head raised, and his eyes slowly began to open, the red orbs now green. As soon as his eyes completely opened, Reiatsu burst out from the center of his forehead, blowing his fringe back and a black symbol appearing. Claws grew from his fingertips, and the redhead grinned at Heroism.

"I present Assimilation. My transcendence of Bankai. Now. PREPARE YOURSELF!" The redhead disappeared in a flash, appearing in front of Heroism, and slashing at him with his claws - Daigoro was now much faster than he had been before.

[Heroism, Hollow King]



A formidable foe, for sure. The last one to survive his Cero Oscuras unscathed was Zefonse - though he did that through regeneration and the fact that Kirei during that time was still a Vasto Lorde, and not an Arrancar. Daigoro was different from normal Shinigami - and now, the future and present revealed why to him. The dark priest did not comment on the strange kind of Zanpakuto-Spirit Dai had - instead, he began to laugh. A dark laugh that made a normal man die from fear alone. The smiling face changed - from the strangely pure smile to a twisted, joy-filled monstrosity. Not only the assimilated one was showing his true colors now.
In the formerly free hand, shadows creeped up from nearly nowhere, and out of them, the swords materialized. The weapons he had discarded returned to the Hollow King.
"SPLENDID! You truely are a destined foe of time!" Shouting out, Heroism raised both hands - the claws of Daigoro crashing against the metal of his own Zanpakuto, the black keys. The eruption from the clash was enough to send cracks through the earth underneath them, and even the Arrancars body trembled. This was the real fight, everything before was nothing but a nice exchange of words. In fact, Daigoros swing of his claws was not just powerfull enough to push Heroism backwards over the ground. The shockwave actually affected his body - on his chest, a tearing sound, and both clothing and the upper layer of his Hierro was torn away, blood flowing down. It was as if he had not blocked a strike with normal claws as a human against a human - that was the strength of this man he was facing.
"But even you will see... that time is not something you can defeat!" Going back into the offense, Heroism made a three-sword stab forward, as if throwing a punch with the hand that was holding them like claws, aiming for the chest of his enemy, while preparing a wide swing of his right. He could not keep on fighting like this, he knew it. All futures pointed at his death, all but one. The fact that he had accepted a future where his body was hurt only showed just how grim the situation was - in his current form.
So instead of actually doing the right-hand swing - Heroism used Sonido just as the swing was halfway done, to intercept his own action. With this swift disappearance, even his former left-handed jab forward would only half-reach forward, if it even had any chance to connect to begin with. The moment right before a hit was the most unstable time.

The Hollow King did not travel far with his Sonido - he just moved right over the dark key in the ground, the twisted artifact that was making the dimensions cry.
"Time Judge All, Angra Mainyu."
The pulse of Reiatsu - it was sickening. It was as if a giant, black transparent sphere expanded from the chest of the Hollow, only to engfull the whole city and the ground beyond. A sickness without a cure, this was pure madness seething out. But strangely enough, the release of the Arrancar did no damage to the surroundings at all, at least not visible damage. Instead, his swords all turned into the same shadows that three of them came out of at first, and coated over the whole body of Heroism.
Out of the darkness, with a sickening, crackling sound of breaking and shifting bones, two wings broke out of the darkness at first - white bones, similliar to Hollow Masks, but spotted with strange red signs and spikes and torns over them. Another rupturing sound, and two pointed, sharp-looking sawlike tails pierced the dark coating, as claws on hands and feet bursted some of it themselves, followed by large, sharp spikes on the shoulders. Lastly, the final bits of pure darkness got absorbed inward, forming the rest of a bone-like armor around the body of the Arrancar.
The eyes of Heroism and his face, nothing of it was visible anymore clearly. But the glow of the red signs made it unmistakeable - this was Heroisms truely strongest form. His Resurrección.

"SPLENDID! You truely are a destined foe of time!"

It seemed that he was beginning to sound excited. Was he actually enjoying this fight now? When the shirt ripped and blood began to flow, Dai was almost taken aback by surprise. To tell the truth... he'd never actually used Assimilation in a real fight before - only in training with dummies - so he was kinda not used to every one of it's effects. He knew it's abilities and he was proficient in them... but that was about it. He pushed back from the man, and saw that he had the "keys" back in his hands. So, he was able to materialize them back, was he?

"But even you will see... that time is not something you can defeat!" A strike... Dai raised his claws up to block, and was suddenly interrupted by the man's right-hand strike, and then... He disappeared. Eh? The redhead turned left and right, trying to see where the man was, green eyes narrowed. His gaze suddenly turned to the key, and he stopped short. What was he doing?

"Time Judge All, Angra Mainyu."

Ba-thump. Dai thought that this man's Reiatsu was sickening before. This was... he shook his head. The visage that he saw, and felt, was now horrifying. He stepped forwards, and his eyes shot open. Everything... horrible...

"You call yourself Time? I call you a fool." He shook his head in disgust, and held his right hand up and out by his side with a small smile.

Build. Reiatsu gathered in his hand, creating a battleaxe. He smiled softly, and suddenly flash-stepped towards Heroism, kneeling down and swinging the axe around, going for a shot at the man's chest.

"Hyeaaah!"

[Heroism, Hollow King]


[Time until Worst Possibility: 5]

A vision of futures where he was attacked with weapons? Not bad, Daigoros powers seemed quite variable, if this was not some trickery - but his eyes were even better at seeing the future possiblities now, and once you saw even a small part of it, you stopped believing in coincidence. Behind the bone mask, a slight smile creeped onto the face of the Arrancar who had resumed his original form, just with way more power than before.
Then suddenly, many futures became less. A weapon? Yes, indeed. Which one of them all? A race against time in Heroisms mind, before he saw the axe, and only had so much time to react. As his human form, he would've taken serious damage from this - his Resurrección was clearly not in the wrong spot right now. With both hands, Heroism protected his chest before the axe was fully swung forward, and grabbed onto the blade - the enormous impact managed to drive the Arrancar back in the air. Sparks were flying, as Heroism attempted to drive his claws into the axe he was holding onto now - normally, this would've cleaved his arms right into halves, but the armor and glove-like claws were strong enough to withstand at least this one impact onto this point, maybe also because with the getting pushed back, a part of the insane physical force was absorbed.
"We shall see who laughs as the last." A small rustling sound, as Kirei prepared his own attack. The two bone-like, long tails curved around, and were thrusted forward like spears from behind the back of the priest - one aimed directly at his stomach, the other aimed further up, in an attempt to go around Daigoros neck and behead him. Now not only Heroism had a weapon only a few bits away from the own chest. All the while, Kirei had the feeling that something was wrong - his future seeing yes, which were normally improved in this form, still had trouble with his enemy. That was quite a feat, and it had been a long time since someone accomplished that...

All while the fight, the key was still turning, not caring for what was happening. And around it and the fighters, Hiroshima was fighting it's own desperate struggle against the evil influence and the massive Reiatsu of Daigoro at the same time, which was slowly going to annihilate the whole town.
"How does it feel to destroy what you wished to protect?" Words like poison, in the same monotone, as his tails attacked.

He'd caught Dai's attack?! The redhead grimaced, and tried to push his attack in further, the ax still caught between the Arrancar's hands. He shouted out, and suddenly noticed something from the corner of his eye.

"We shall see who laughs as the last." Tails. Coming at him. Quickly. The redhead tried to move his body slightly, and one of them hit him in the abdomen, just missing his stomach and lodging itself in there. He grinned, and let go of the ax with his left hand, grabbing the other tail as quickly as it had come. But there was a problem. The fact that they were fighting like this was dangerous. Their reiatsu was destroying the minds and bodies of some of the humans, and that meant that too much prolonged fighting would be more dangerous for this town. He grimaced, and black symbol on his forehead began to glow softly - he kept the pressure on the Arrancar with one hand, used his now-bleeding left hand to hold the tail away from his neck, and made sure that the other tail was firmly lodged in his abdomen.

"I think it'll be me, Arrancar. Because you're right where I want you." His voice was cold, and the glow on his forehead brightened, and suddenly focused itself into a set point on the center of the symbol.

Ray of Destryur! The single point of light in the center of the symbol suddenly shot out, sending a cutting beam out. Dai looked down first, and made to cut through the man from his groin, and out his shoulder. As soon as he was done, he let go of the first tail, wrenched the other tail from out of his abdomen, and pushed himself back, staring at Heroism through pained eyes. He had an injury now, one that really hurt - and he had no regen capabilities, not even in this form...

"Heh..."

[Heroism]


[Time Until Worst Possibility: 4]

"...!" Not a single word was said by the Hollow King as Daigoros symbol flashed up. He couldn't dodge if he wanted to right about now, one of his razor sharp saw-like tails was still lodged firmly into the body of Daigoro, while the other one had been caught by his hands - or at least, Kirei wouldn't be able to completely escape from this. Still, thankfully, his tails were not too short. Dragging out his pierced through tail for as much as he could, Kotomine tried to twist his body sideways to give less of an attack field - once more, his eyes were the only reason for him being able to react to a move never seen before. But in the end, it seemed futile.

The laser hit it's target with the razing sound of something slicing away flesh and bone, a searing tone of sickening intensity. As Daigoro got himself into aparently safe distance again, the attacked Hollow staggered backwards, before falling down - or so it seemed. But actually, he just spread his wings out, and still stood tall - now in the air. Blood was collecting under him, and the yellow light on his chestplate had flickered a short moment.
"I see. So it was part of your plan to get yourself injured like that, my friend?" Clearly, Kirei was now making fun of his enemy. Strangely enough, the blood stream out of the cut that should've cleaved Heroism in two and made him fall apart lessened to nothingness - and then it was revealed why. The bone plate armor was apparently a lot harder than it seemed for Hollow bones.
Instead of being completely cleaved in two, it looked as if the beam had managed to leave a large scar over the entire armor where it hit, but the flesh underneath was aparently held together by those exact bones, and started to heal. It looked like worms or mud molding together again - like everything about this Arrancar, the whole existance of it seemed sickening to the eyes and mind. Was there no limit to his powers?
Well, of course there was. But unlike Daigoro, the Hollow King was very able to heal wounds on his own body simply with the passing of time.
"Well then, what will you do, Shinigami? Continue fighting, and eradicate everyone in the town with your power? Only a bit of time remains. Once the key completely turns, wether I die or not, Soul Society will forever be closed..." The monotone voice seemed even more hollowed out through the armor, and while the face could not be seen, it still seemed to stare right into Daigoros deepest emotions. While speaking, the Hollow King routed energy into each of his hands in large quantities - while regenerating from this wound, he wouldn't be able to freely speed around, or else the Reishi bindings would tear open and ruin his efforts to come out unscathed from this attack at him.

A sudden headache erupted in his skull. The pain... that was something. It meant that he wouldn't stay sane for as long as he'd hoped. Maybe it was because he was angry at himself? For letting his one opportunity to kill this "man" slip out of his hands? He shook his head and placed a hand on the bloody wound on his abdomen. This wasn't looking good. He'd hoped that Assimilating would help, that it would give him the edge needed to defeat this man. But it didn't. He was beginning to feel that emotion he dreaded. Fear. Worry. Despair. No, he had to get them out of his head. If he felt them for too long... the beast would take over.

But it was too late. He'd already been affected, that explained the sudden and sharp headache. He shook his head and looked up at the Hollow King, eyes still defiant. But that defiance was once more shattered... he was healing. No... NO! He was healing! Dai couldn't help but watch the man as he healed the wound from his second-most powerful Assimilated attack. This... was far from good. Not good at all! He shouted out in rage, no, another emotion that would substantiate FeralMind! He had to calm himself, but the pain of his wound was proving that impossible. He looked up at Heroism with a careful eye.

"Well then, what will you do, Shinigami? Continue fighting, and eradicate everyone in the town with your power? Only a bit of time remains. Once the key completely turns, wether I die or not, Soul Society will forever be closed..."

"One city. I don't like saying this, but it has to be said." Dai's voice had turned cold and emotionless. There was something he needed to say to this man, and he couldn't have himself go emotionless to do it. "I had a teacher once. I can't remember his name. I just remember his teachings. He told me... that everything has a price. If this one city is the price we pay for the safety of the rest of the world... then so be it." He shook his head, and disappeared. He appeared behind the Arrancar, and disappeared again. Beside him, and disappeared once more. Above him, and disappeared for the final time, appearing just feet from his face. He reached out the arm with the ax, and changed it into a mass of Reiatsu. He'd leave Heroism guessing until the very last moment. He got within range and suddenly swiped with it, changing it into a longsword to attack.

I will do this for you, sensei.

It would become a mystery even to him, but something changed in this fight. Maybe it was just a flickering of chance, maybe only a small surge of power from his own Hollow soul - or simply, a change of fate itself. Whatever it was, just after Daigoro exclaimed that sacrificing one city for the entire world was what he had to do - it happened. A charge of something only decribeable as 'time' surged through the Hollow King, as the yellow bar on his chest filled all the way upwards.

A sharp pain was the next thing Kirei felt. Dai was growing accostumed to tricking his eyes that saw the future, and him changing the shape not until the very last moment left the possible attacks questionable till the very last moment. Only bringing his arm in-between the longsword and using the reinforced armor-platings in conjunction with the Hierro of the arm below saved him from getting the sword stuck right through his side and cleaved into just that, but instead, his flesh was once more carved into on the arm, up till the bone, chipping into said bone slightly. If his enemy were to change his weapon now, well, Kotomine saw the results, none of them were pretty. Losing an arm was one of the smallest problems then.
However, that wouldn't happen. The energy buildup in the hand that was on the blocking arm subsided, but was instead rerouted to his other hand and chest. The yellow marking seemingly sparked thunderbolts, which travelled along his shoulder over his still free arm.
In a sweepingly quick stabbing motion, Kireis double tails pierced into the ground to the sides of his enemy, to make escaping to the side a whole lot harder to do without cutting oneself in half on the razor-sharp bone structures.
]"If that is your answer, then so be it. But can you really suffer the sin of killing so many without your own death?" The voice of the priest still had that sound that pierced into ones soul even while fighting. A yellow orb seemed to appear in his free hand, and said hand was trusted forward, right towards Daigoros chest.
"We'll see how well you fare... when exposed to the curse of my blood. Worst Possibility."
If that orb were to hit, the worst possible fate of the next minute would befall Daigoro. Being pierced, slashed, killed - or the one thing that was even worse for him... Whatever it was, the only way to escape from this was not to get hit by it, as blocking could prove just as dangerous. This was the ultimate move of the Hollow King, and one of the reasons why he was able to defend his throne.